doi 10.1098/rspb.2001.1686 The energetic grooming costs imposed by a parasitic mite (Spinturnix myoti) upon its bat host (Myotis myotis) Maud S. Giorgi*, Raphae« l Arlettaz{, Philippe Christe and Peter Vogel Institut d’EcologieöLaboratoire de Zoologie et Ecologie Animale, Baª timent de Biologie, Universite¨ de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland Parasites often exert severe negative e¡ects upon their host’s ¢tness. Natural selection has therefore prompted the evolution of anti-parasite mechanisms such as grooming. Grooming is e¤cient at reducing parasitic loads in both birds and mammals, but the energetic costs it entails have not been properly quanti¢ed. We measured both the energetic metabolism and behaviour of greater mouse-eared bats submitted to three di¡erent parasite loads (no, 20 and 40 mites) during whole daily cycles. Mites greatly a¡ected their time and energy budgets. They caused increased grooming activity, reduced the overall time devoted to resting and provoked a dramatic shortening of resting bout duration. Correspondingly, the bats’ overall metabolism (oxygen consumption) increased drastically with parasite intensity and, during the course of experiments, the bats lost more weight when infested with 40 rather than 20 or no parasites. The short-term energetic constraints induced by anti-parasite grooming are probably associated with long-term detrimental e¡ects such as a decrease in survival and overall reproductive value. Keywords: Chiroptera; energetics; grooming; metabolism; time and energy budget behaviour (time budget) of wild-captured greater mouse- 1. INTRODUCTION eared bats (Myotis myotis) that were experimentally Several recent studies have demonstrated that parasites submitted to various levels of infestationby the haematopha- may exert severe negative e¡ects on their hosts’ ¢tness. gous ectoparasite Spinturnix myoti (Acari, Dermanyssoidea). For example, in his review on birds, MÖller (1997) showed that ectoparasites may retard the timing of repro- 2. MATERIAL AND METHODS duction and reduce the survival and growth of young, eventually a¡ecting overall reproductive success and indi- (a) Study organisms vidual reproductive value. Not surprisingly, hosts have Fourteen subadult, non-reproductive greater mouse-eared thus evolved sophisticated physiological, immunological bats (M. myotis) were captured with mist-nets during the summer and behavioural defences against parasites (Combes of 1999 at the entrance to two nursery roosts in the upper 1991). Yet, although most recent studies have clearly made Rhoª ne valley (Valais, Swiss Alps). The bats were kept in a large, a link between parasitism and various hosts’ life-history semi-outdoor enclosure at Lausanne University (under licenses traits, few have measured the actual energetic costs from the Nature Conservation and Veterinary Services of the induced by parasitism (Schall et al. (1982), Oppliger et al. canton of Valais) and fed ad libitum on a mixed diet consisting of (1996) in reptiles; Munger & Karasov (1989) in mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) and crickets (Acheta domesticus). mammals; Booth et al. (1993), MÖller et al. (1994) with The mites used in the experiments were collected from the regard to birds). Among the array of hosts’ anti-parasitic same colonies as the bats and were kept on our captive bats. behaviours are mate selection, avoidance of infected Spinturnix myoti (Mesostigmata, Spinturnicidae) is a speci¢c social groups or sites, nest sanitation and grooming haematophagous ectoparasite of M. myotis (and its sibling species (Hart 1997). Although the latter is e¤cient at reducing Myotis blythii). It occurs exclusively on wing and tail membranes parasite loads in both birds (Clayton 1991; Hart 1997) and completes its entire life cycle on its bat host (Rudnick 1960). and mammals (Mooring et al. 1996) (notice that there The development of eggs, pre-larvae and ¢rst nymphal stages exists no study of the e¤ciency of anti-parasite grooming takes place in the genital tract of the female mite. The female in free-ranging bats), the extra energetic costs it entails mite later gives birth to male and female deuteronymphs, which have to our knowledge never been properly investigated. already have an adult appearance (Evans 1968). This is particularly surprising as such a time-consuming activity fundamentally a¡ects a species’ daily time (b) Experimental conditions budget, modifying the ¢ne balance of energy allocation The behaviour and oxygen consumption of the bats were that trades o¡ various vital activities such as feeding, monitored in parallel during experimental runs. Three experi- resting, sleeping and reproduction and, ultimately, it ments were carried out on every individual bat, with each run alters life-history strategies (Stearns 1992). corresponding to a given parasite load (intensities of no, 20 or Here we present the results of a laboratory study that 40 mites) according to a randomized succession. All parasites measured both the metabolism (oxygen consumption) and present on a bat were either removed prior to the experimental runs (intensity 0) or bats were infested with 20 or 40 parasites *Author for correspondence ([email protected]). {Present address: Division of Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, each and parasites remaining on the bats at the end of runs were University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. counted. These parasite intensities are close to natural conditions Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B (2001) 268, 2071^2075 2071 © 2001 The Royal Society Received 27 October 2000 Accepted 29 March 2001 2072 M. S. Giorgi and others The energetics of bats’anti-parasitic grooming as observations made on 166 greater mouse-eared bats gave an event recorder software, O. Simonin 1999): (i) resting (corre- average load of 12.8 parasites per bat (s.d. 10.8 and range 0^56 sponding in fact to resting and sleeping, which could not be ˆ ˆ mites). Two bats could be studied simultaneously; they were distinguished), (ii) movement (any slight change in position placed in separate respirometric boxes (see ½ 2c, below), which within the metabolic chamber which lasted 51min), (iii) did not allow contact (either visual, olfactory or acoustic) with exploration (periods of 4 1min with the bat moving around each other. All experiments took place in an almost totally dark within the chamber), and (iv) grooming (using teeth or feet for and silent environment. Each run lasted (mean s.d.) scratching). All of the activities exhibited by the bats could be § 24.1 0.6 h (range 23^28 h), during which time the bats had classi¢ed under these four categories. The proportion of time § ˆ no access to food or drinking water; this enabled us to monitor devoted to each activity as well as the absolute durations of their time and energy budgets during a nearly complete daily activity bouts were calculated. cycle. The ¢rst hour after the onset of an experiment was excluded from the analysis as it often corresponds to a period of stress due to (e) Statistical analysis entry into the metabolic chamber. Moreover, in order to standard- Data analyses were performed using the program S-PLUS ize the duration of each run among individuals, the analysis was 2000 (MathSoft Inc. 1988^1999, Seattle, WA, USA). Percent- restricted to 22 h of recording (6071380 min from the onset of ages were square-root arcsine transformed prior to running the the experiment). Individual body mass was measured both prior statistical analyses. Every variable was then tested for normality to entering the respirometric box and just after the end of an (Kolmogorov^Smirnov one-sample test) and heteroscedasticity experiment. Since the runs sometimes lasted more than 24 h, (one-way ANOVA). No variable deviated from normality and experiment duration was added to the analyses on weight losses heteroscedasticity, except for the duration of grooming and as a covariate, assuming linear decreases in body mass during resting bouts; as normal distributions could not be achieved by runs; due to technical problems, four out of 42 experiments transformation of these two variables, we replaced their actual could not be used in this covariance analysis. values by their respective ranking values (thereby achieving normal distributions) and performed parametric statistical tests (c) Energetics on the ranked data. ANOVAs or ANCOVAs (with parasite load Oxygen consumption (VO2) was measured using an open-air and individual bats as factors since each bat was submitted to £ow respirometer. Animals were placed in a metabolic chamber the three treatments) were applied in all cases. Moreover, pair- (10 cm 16 cm 10 cm 1.6 l air volume) during the trials, wise comparisons were performed using post hoc Tukey proce- £ £ ˆ which was submersed in a thermoregulated water bath at dures in order to assess which levels of parasite load yielded 35 0.1 8C, i.e. well within the bats’ thermoneutral zone (Hock results that di¡ered signi¢cantly from each other. § 1951). Outside air was dried over silica gel and pushed through the two metabolic chambers at a £ow rate of ca. 10.65 l h71. The 3. RESULTS £ow rate was controlled and measured continuously by a cali- brated mass £ow controller (model 5850E, Brooks Instruments, (a) Parasite number Veenendaal, The Netherlands) that was connected to a control The numbers of parasites present on the bats did not and read out equipment (model 5878, Brooks Instruments). The change during the course of an experiment except in e¥uent air was sequentially passed through a column of KOH three trials out of 42 (n 17 mites instead of 20, n 39 ˆ ˆ (in order to ¢x the expired CO ) and a silica gel column. Finally, mites instead of 40 and n 42 mites instead of 40 due to 2 ˆ oxygen concentration was measured using an oxygen analyser two births). (Gas purity analyser Xentra 4100, Servomex, Esslingen, Switzer- land). The oxygen analyser was calibrated monthly using pure (b) Energetics nitrogen gas ( 95%) and pure oxygen gas ( 95%).